Yellow Dog Records carries the living lore of authentic American music into the present. Featuring new interpretations of Blues, Jazz, Soul, and Americana styles by established and emerging artists, Yellow Dog Records is where innovation confronts tradition. What's left after the collision? Inspired explorations of America's musical roots.

Black Francis, aka Frank Black, aka Charles Kitteridge Thompson IV… whatever you call him, the Pixies alum has tapped Yellow Dog Records artist Mark Lemhouse to produce his newest effort Bluefinger. Described as having “some of the most aggressive, decadent songs Thompson has written under any of his aliases,” Bluefinger is set to release Sept ’07 on Cooking Vinyl. Recounting the experience, Mark says, “That session was a lot of fun. Everybody was really loose and just happy to work on whatever idea Charles would come up with.”

Blackolero, a French Frank Black fan e-zine, has released an in-depth interview avec Lemhouse. (Click here for the english version via the Frank Black forum)

The Cascade Blues Association has announced their nominations for 2006 Muddy Awards – three Yellow Dog artists are included! Terry Robb is nominated for “Best Acoustic Guitar” while Mark Lemhouse gets a nod for “Best Regional Act”. And William Lee Ellis‘ new album God’s Tattoos is nominated for “National Recording of the Year” alongside new releases from Keb’ Mo’ and Watermelon Slim.

Through March 7th, the good folks at Borders are nationally featuring three different titles from Yellow Dog Records. Mary Flower’s Bywater Dance, Terry Robb’s Resting Place, and Mark Lemhouse’s The Great American Yard Sale can all be found in listening posts in the Blues section of 275 Borders stores nationwide. Big City BluesMagazine praised all three albums, recently writing “Yellow Dog is making a strong run as being a roots music heavyweight label with engaging albums like this trio…”

More information, sound samples, and press reviews for all three albums available from our Artists page

The latest accolade for Mark Lemhouse’s The Great American Yard Sale comes from Paste Magazine, highly respected for featuring up-and-coming new artists. They’ve included the track “Scarlet” in the CD sampler with their new (Dec/Jan) issue, alongside tracks from Fiona Apple, Nada Surf, and Imogen Heap. The entire sampler (as well as all the tracks from “Yard Sale”) are available on iTunes, conveniently compiled into an iMix playlist.

Congratulations to both Terry Robb and Mark Lemhouse who were recognized last night by the Cascade Blues Association in their annual Muddy Awards.

Mark Lemhouse’s new album The Great American Yard Sale won an award for “National Recording of the Year”, while Terry Robb’s new album Resting Place took home the Muddy for “Northwest Recording of the Year”. Terry also won “Best Acoustic Guitar” to mark his record eighteenth Muddy award!

Mark Lemhouse‘s debut album, Big Lonesome Radio, breathed fresh air into the traditional blues world, earning a pair of Handy award nominations including “Best New Artist Debut.” But like the great roots innovators who inspired him, Mark Lemhouse is a restless spirit who can’t be confined to any one corner of the American roots landscape. His highly-anticipated follow-up, The Great American Yard Sale, finds the genre-defying guitarist plugging in and heading out into edgy Americana territory, armed with banjo and electric lap steel as well as his deftly fingerpicked National guitar.

Update 11/05: The track “Cluck Old Hen” is featured on the CD Sampler in the current issue of Blues Revue Magazine!Update 12/05:The track “Scarlet” is featured on the CD Sampler in the current issue of Paste Magazine!

We’re thrilled to announce the signing of Mary Flower! A double threat with fingerstyle and lap slide guitar, we highly recommend her last album Ragtime Gal. For her upcoming release on Yellow Dog Records, she traveled to New Orleans to record with a full lineup of some of the city’s best musicians, including Henry Butler, Jon Cleary, and Dr. Michael White. Look for the new album, Bywater Dance, this fall – join our mailing list to keep up-to-date on dates and details.

For those of you paying close attention… Mark Lemhouse‘s new album is just about ready as well. If you want to be one of the very first people to have a copy, you can order an advance copy from our Order Page now.

The entire Yellow Dog Records catalog is available on iTunes! Someday, we’ll have links from our Order Page so you can purchase individual tracks from iTunes.

UPDATE (Aug 2010): you can now purchase individual tracks as well as entire digital albums directly from us — look for “Download” links from the albums on our music page.

The film Hustle and Flow, directed by Memphis filmmaker Craig Brewer and Executive Produced by John Singleton (“Boyz N the Hood”) debuted at the Sundance film festival to rave reviews. It won the American Dramatic Audience Award and the American Excellence in Cinematography Award, and was purchased for a record $9M for wider distribution by Paramount / MTV.

Could it have been the music? Well, perhaps the acting and directing had something to do with it as well, but Yellow Dog Records artists play prominent roles in the film’s music. The film score was composed by Scott Bomar and performed by the Bo-Keys, and songs by Mark Lemhouse and Calvin Newborn also appear in the film. In this article, Singleton enthuses: “To have these classic musicians is the icing on the cake to shooting a little movie in Memphis. You couldn’t do it anywhere else in the world.” This article also describes more about the the Bo-Keys’ role in the film score.

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Great chat with the @RockRiverTimes​ ahead of @TheClaudettes' show in Rockford this weekend: Check it out » (posted Nov 11)